The One Month Countdown Begins {and a giveaway!!}

Posted by hellyontherun in Giveaway, Running and tagged with Countdown, Giveaway, Marathon Training, Party, Phoenix Marathon, Road ID, Running, Safety February 1, 2014

You guys…I’m running a marathon in a month!!

It’s really gonna happen!

It’s so crazy; even after months of training I still can’t believe I’m doing this!

So, because this is the last month and I’m beyond excited about this, I’ll be doing a couple of giveaways to get the party started leading up to March 1st–THE BIG DAY!

One of my favorite products I’ve purchased have been my Road ID bracelets. The first one I bought is the the Wrist ID Slim. This bracelet is a silicone stretchy band and the ID allows for 5 lines of information.

I ended up ordering a too small size so when I went to the website to order just the bracelet in a bigger size (you can interchange the bracelet and use the same ID–a really cool feature!), I decided to go with the Wrist ID Sport. I like that the Sport is hydrophilic–good with water–and considering I sweat like a horse when I run, this was a definite plus. It doesn’t irritate my skin at all.

This bracelet allows for six lines of information on the ID plate. I like that you can include a quote if you want. Mine is my running mantra, “My race. My pace.”

There are so many cool colors to choose from too; of course I went with purple 🙂

The Road ID is probably the #1 running accessory I recommend to people. You never know what can happen where ever you might be. If you’re biking, swimming, running, hiking, or just going out for a walk, this simple bracelet could be extremely helpful in an emergency situation.

Another reason Road ID is so awesome is that it’s implemented a new new mobile app which is meant to supplement the physical Road ID wrist band. It allows your friends and family to track your running, cycling, hiking, walking and basically any outdoor adventures in real time and has a stationary alert system. How cool is that??

So, because I’m super pumped about my upcoming marathon and because I love my own Road ID, I’m giving away $35 of credit to use towards YOUR OWN ROAD ID. Yes, whatever you want from their website!! They have other products too besides bracelets–take a tour and look around! What would you do with $35?? 😀

The not-so-fine-print:

To enter, leave a comment telling me what color you’d want your Road ID bracelet (if that’s what you’d choose) and what your favorite running inspirational quote is. Giveaway ends Friday, February 7th midnight Central time. Winner will be announced that morning.

Start here—->a Rafflecopter giveaway

To increase your chances:

1. Like Helly On The Run and Road ID on Facebook
2. Follow me on Twitter @ hellyontherun
3. Follow me on Instagram @ hellyontherun

Thank you all so much for your encouragement during my journey. I’m still celebrating my sub 2 hour 1/2 marathon and am so looking forward to my first full marathon. I’m glad you’re with me for the ride! : )

~helly

Speed Work Fun!

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with Challenge, Marathon Training, Running, Speed Work, Track January 30, 2014

As you may have noticed by now, Wednesdays are my speed work days. My run club meets at a local high school track and we typically do a speed workout of 3-4 miles. Since having incorporated these workouts into my training, I’ve definitely seen improvements in my overall time/pace. For the longest, I was hanging out in the 10:00/mile range but now I’ve consistently been in the mid to low 9s and even high 8s. When I do speed work, I occasionally even see a seven.

On Tuesday I did a 6.2 mile run wanting to challenge myself with my pace. I’ve been doing speed work for awhile and wanted to see if I could go longer a little faster. I ended at 6.21 miles at an 8:46 pace. My fastest 10K to date. I definitely feel myself getting faster and I do think it’s partly due to speed work Wednesdays.

I want to share with you two workouts I love that we’ve done (Please note: I am not a personal trainer nor do I have any certifications. Please do these at your own risk):

The first one is called 200m Surges–

You want to make sure your sprint is fast and considerably at a faster pace than your jog. After four continuous laps, take a breather–you can decide how long you want this to be–and then go for another set. I recommend starting with a warmup lap and ending with a cool down lap. This workout leaves you at 3 miles.

The next workout is another favorite–

You want to do this in a pace that challenges but one that you’ll be able to maintain (albeit with difficulty) throughout the entire workout. The length of the “short rest” is up to you but you don’t want to lose the momentum of the workout by taking a too long rest. I also recommend a warm up lap and a cool down lap. This workout leaves you at at 4 miles.

If you don’t have a track near you, try doing these on the treadmill. My gym has ‘mills that have a visual track you can see yourself running around on lol! If yours doesn’t have this nifty feature, I recommend doing the 200m surges using time instead. For example, jog two minutes, surge two minutes.

Let me know if you try these and what you think!

–Do you incorporate speed work in your training?

Marathon Training Recap Weeks 10 & 11

Posted by hellyontherun in Half Marathon, Running and tagged with Marathon Training, Recap, Running, Training January 26, 2014

So it looks like with all of the craziness of RnRAZ, I missed Week 10 Recap. In a nutshell:

Week 10
Sunday, 1/12–Cross Training Day, 12 miles on the bike

Monday, 1/13–Rest Day

Tuesday, 1/14–Tempo 5 miler

Wednesday, 1/15–Typically, this is my speed day but my husband had to work late. I did 4 miles when he got home at a faster pace than usual for this distance. 8:30/mile pace. It was hard!

Thursday, 1/6–Cross Training Day, 10 miles on the bike

Friday, 1/17–Rest Day

Saturday, 1/18–Warm up 2 miler for #megsmiles

Week 11

Sunday, 1/19–RnR Arizona 1/2 Marathon!! Read all about it here 🙂

Monday, 1/20–Rest day. My husband went out of town this day for the rest of the week so I knew I wouldn’t be able to run. It worked out because I was forced to let myself recover from the half. I needed it. I knew that if he was here, I would have been back out running and not giving myself the rest I needed.

Tuesday-Thursday, 1/21-23–I did several Blogilates videos at home when the kids were in bed.

Friday, 1/24–Husband came home!! I immediately handed the kids over and went for a 2 mile run. When I got back, my daughter was saying, “Out!” So, I put her in the jogger and went for a 1 mile jog with her for a total of 3 miles. Boy, it felt good to be back out there.

Saturday, 1/25–18 MILES!!! I was worried about this long run all week. It was on my training plan, but I was concerned that since I hadn’t run all week (since the 1/2 on Sunday) I wouldn’t be able to make the full 18 miles or that I would really struggle. Luckily, a girl in my run club also had an 18 miler in her plan so we made a date to run together. It made the run sooo much easier and even though our times weren’t the best, we had a blast chatting it up and enjoying our beautiful Arizona weather.

I hope everyone had a great week!!

–How was your running week?

–Did you have a Saturday long run?

–Do you like running with a buddy or are you a solo runner? (I typically run by myself but this long run needed a partner 🙂 )